Today kicks off a whole week of treats for lager lovers and hop heads.

Wes Tite celebrated the festival's opening with a pint of black
lager at Extreme Pizza in Sacramento, "I haven't met anybody that
doesn't like beer. I've just met people who haven't
found a beer they like."

The lager has pleasantly surprised him, which is kind of the
point of the week - for people to try new beers and new tastes
until they discover something new that they enjoy.

Fred Munday poured me a sampler of beers from Ol" Republic
brewery out of Nevada City. I tried a lager called a
California Common and then the English IPA, "It's about 5.8%
alcohol. IT's a lot lower in alcohol than most west coast IPA's,
which are big bold and robust," Fred said.

The IPA had a little bit more of an aftertaste, but was a
little smoother than the California. Fred says it's all about
the hops, "The English IPA's come out of tradition of what are
called bitter beers and so you tend to end up, the bitterness comes
off of the hops."

Fred's from England originally. He knows a lot about beer.

At Samuel Horn's Tavern in Folsom they'll be celebrating sour
beer tonight. Rick Sellers is Samuel Horn's beer tender and
beer director for Beer Week, "It's a week to really focus on
our local brewers, the distributors, the retailers who really make
every week a good time to enjoy a beer in Sacramento."

Sellers says there are 18 brewers within a 50-mile radius of
Sacramento and five more scheduled to open for business by the end
of the year.